SINGAPORE: She may be known as one of the ‘Seven Princesses’ of MediaCorp, but there are no airs or graces about Singaporean singer-actress Rui En.

So down-to-earth is she, that she prefers to see herself as a frog. And sings about it too!

In her sophomore album “United Nations”, Rui En says that her second single “Frog” describes herself and people in general – in their yearning for something more in life.

“(The song is) about me, being like a frog, and I’m always trying to get out of my well… I try, but I can’t,” said the 27-year-old in an interview with Channelnewsasia.com.

“We’re all frogs in some ways… we’re all reaching out for more, perhaps for things like money or power. So ‘Frog’ is about that. Sometimes we keep jumping (to peer beyond) but we don’t know why we are jumping, or what exactly is it that we want.”

For Rui En, the extra piece of sky she wants to catch is “freedom”, which she says she constantly tries to create for herself, such as the freedom to express her thoughts and emotions which she did by penning all 11 tracks on her new album despite the slight difficulties she faced in the language.

“I’m English-educated so my Chinese is really not that good,” she said. “When I first started writing lyrics two to three years ago, it was really, really difficult as I tend to think in English and try to translate it to Chinese, and sometimes, the Chinese version just doesn’t feel right.”

Released some six years after her debut album, “Rui En Vol. 1”, the latest release “United Nations” marks Rui En’s return to the music scene with a good mix of both upbeat tracks and sad heartfelt songs such as “Slow Dance”, “Let Go”, “Journey” and “Empty Bottle”, which she says that are reflections of her journey through life.

“The title is a spin-off from the term ‘United States’ – ‘states’ being moods and emotional states. It basically means it’s a collection of songs that has very different kinds of ‘me’ and the lyrics are about everything in life that I feel inspired by.”

But re-visiting music does not mean the Caldecott princess, or frog, is going to give up her acting career. She is currently filming a new Channel 8 drama series “The Dreamcatcher”, slated to air in February next year.

“Acting and singing are closely tied, they’re two very different worlds and I get different kinds of job satisfaction,” she said. “I can’t pick, it’s like asking people to choose between two favourite children.

“Acting – you affect people, and I think that it’s beautiful when you are able to surpass the space or gap between the television and the viewer and actually touch the person, and that is the power of acting. For singing, there are songs people listen to when the going gets tough and I want to be able to have songs that can help people through a rough patch.”

And currently, Rui En the frog is happy as she is, and firmly insists she does not want to be a princess.

“Most people may want to get out of the well but they don’t know what is out there, do they? To me, I think trying to jump out of the well is trying to get rich or trying to attain something that you may not even understand why you need to attain. So, nope, no princesses for me.”

Rui En’s sophomore album “United Nations” is available in CD Rama stores across Singapore.